Dutch Police has finished training eagles to take down drones

The first sea eagles that can take down drones for the Dutch police, are ready to be deployed.
The police are experimenting with multiple ways to disarm the unmanned aircrafts.
The dutch police hire the eagles from a american company, but also buy small raptors that receive training for one year. The police agents that are deployed with the eagles must, among other things ensure that the animals do not get injured during their work. “In professional drones of three kilograms or more can cause propellers cuts in the legs and claws of birds,” said police spokesman Dennis Janus. TNO research has shown that this is the case with carbon propellors.

The police have to investigate how the claws of the animals can be protected. Conversely, the drones can be damaged after an interception by the birds; this would have happened in the meantime ten times at testing. The eagles will be used at events where they should stand ready to grab some drones, in practice, probably able to grab most quadcopters. The police is working on other methods, such as drones with big fishing net and systems based on UHF -wave work to disrupt the operation of drones.

2 thoughts on “Dutch Police has finished training eagles to take down drones”

Stupidity knows no bounds, and this is one of those examples. The Dutch police force have purchased a number of eagles to snatch drones from the skies that could potentially be considered a threat. Now I can see this happening with a stock Phantom that’s holding position, if the bird is lucky enough to not get hit by the propellers anywhere else than on its claws.

However use a somewhat bigger, and potentially even more threatening, multicopter, sporting carbon fiber propellors and bigger motors and that eagle will have its claws minced to bits. It seems like the Dutch police lacks any comprehension of the basic principles of inertia and the cutting force imposed to flesh and bone from an almost razor sharp propeller with a few hundred watt motor driving it.

As a test case I would like to suggest they stick their fingers into a turning propeller and tell us the outcome. Idiots.